School hockey: Nauset skates by D-Y

SOUTH DENNIS — Last night's meeting between Atlantic Coast League rivals Nauset and Dennis-Yarmouth at Tony Kent Arena would not win any beauty contest.

GEOFF CONVERSE

SOUTH DENNIS — Last night's meeting between Atlantic Coast League rivals Nauset and Dennis-Yarmouth at Tony Kent Arena would not win any beauty contest.

In fact, it was pretty ugly.

But, when the final horn mercifully sounded, Nauset had skated away with an impressive 5-1 victory over the Dolphins, improving its record to 5-2-0. The loss drops D-Y to 1-3-1 overall.

This was a game that saw 21 penalties whistled against the two clubs — 11 called on the Dolphins, 10 on Nauset.

"You can't spend that amount of time in the penalty box against a team that has the talent that Nauset has and expect to win the game," said D-Y head coach Neal Donohue. "When we were playing them even-up, it was a decent game. But when you give offensive players of their caliber power-play opportunities, you're inviting defeat."

"We knew it would get a little testy out there," said Nauset head coach Brian Niezgoda. "These kids play with and against each other all year round, so there was something on the line in this one."

Dean Niezgoda led the offensive output for the Warriors, tallying a hat trick and an assist. Linemates Troy Niezgoda, Dean's brother, and Greg Lynch each chipped in with a goal and an assist while Paul Berry aided on the game's first goal for Nauset.

D-Y's Matt L'Hommedieu, with an assist from Will MacDonald scuttled the shutout bid of Nauset goalie Jake Berry in the second period.

"I thought Jake played a real solid game for us," praised Brian Niezgoda.

"He made some big stops on breakaways and when we needed him to come up big he did. He has been improving game by game."

After a mild opening period, where Nauset tallied a pair of goals and skated off with a 2-0 advantage, only one penalty for each team was whistled.

However, the game quickly deteriorated in the middle frame.

D-Y was called for eight penalties in the period, which was more than the totals shots on goal the Dolphins put on the Nauset net.

"We got into trouble by not playing smart hockey," Donohue said.

"We need to exhibit a lot more self control if we plan on winning more games this year."

Nauset was not a whole lot better being sent to the penalty box six times in that period.

"In between the second and third periods I told the team we needed to play smarter and stop taking foolish penalties," said coach Niezgoda.

"At the start of that period we did what we were supposed to and got the fourth goal that gave us some breathing room."